King Harbor Brewing in Redondo Beach boiling up craft beer reminiscent of marijuana

By
Nick Green, Daily Breeze

Friday, June 30, 2017

Is the logical evolution of the rapidly growing craft beer and recently legalized marijuana industries a convergence that could provide a potent pint of liquid pot?

You might think so after tasting King Harbor Brewing Co.’s Lupulin IPA, a dank, juicy, intense India Pale Ale that threatens to overwhelm the taste buds with a redolent, almost piquant, fruit-forward richness that’s devoid of bitterness.

Available in cans or on draft in the twin brewery tap rooms at 182nd Street in Redondo Beach and the International Boardwalk on the waterfront itself, the IPA was released Friday afternoon just in time for the long holiday weekend.

Lupulin IPA is believed to be the first craft beer brewed in the South Bay with lupulin powder, which is to hops — the primary ingredient in beer — what something called kief is to marijuana.

Turns out hops and marijuana do in fact share a common chemical compound called terpenes, which gives each plant a smell and appearance that is a lot alike.

Dank brew

“Some varieties of hops are described as dank because they resemble marijuana,” said brewer Phil McDaniel, who is quick to point out that brewing a pot-like product was not his intent.

“I don’t know anything about marijuana,” he added.

Kief and lupulin powder are produced much the same way, too, by essentially drying them out and separating them from the rest of the plant, be it marijuana or hops.

According to craft brew industry bible Beer Advocate, lupulin is manufactured by chilling the plants in a nitrogen atmosphere, producing an oil-rich concentrate that’s got a much more potent character than hops.

Kief, too, is the most potent part of a marijuana plant with a higher concentration of psychoactive cannabinoids that’s often sprinkled atop some regular pot for an extra kick.

Big IPA taste

And both provide an intense taste sensation, too, especially in a West Coast IPA that has brewers striving for a rich, big, floral or fruity taste without lingering bitterness.

“When you use a great amount of hops, you taste all that great hops flavor, but you’re starting to get hints of plant matter, a little bit like chewing on a leaf,” said brewer Phil McDaniel. “(With lupulin) they separate all those out so all you’re getting is pineapple, mango, tropical — with none of those other flavors — so it’s an intensely, fruity, almost candy-like fruitiness without any of the grassy, vegetable, lawn clippings-type flavor.”

Lupulin is a new product — it was launched earlier this year — so it’s still relatively unknown.

But McDaniel already believes the ingredient will become a fixture at the brewery.

“This is the most hops I’ve ever used in a beer because it doesn’t absolutely ruin my yield,” he said. “Not to be dramatic, but this is my favorite IPA I’ve ever made. So I love it; I’m going to take a bunch home today.”

Dunbabin is another convert.

Lupulin provides exactly the kind of trademark taste King Harbor Brewing strives to create in all its beers, he said — a bright, clear, tropical fruitiness that’s characteristic of California IPA’s.

And it is a natural progression of what some call an arms race of sorts among West Coast brewers to create the definitive huge, smooth IPA.

“It’s just so dank and resinous that with lupulin you pick it up in the beer immediately,” Dunbabin said. “Your mouth is just full of delicious hoppiness.”